Cancun trip, part 1 - Moon Palace Grand
Firstly let’s take The Moon Palace Grand. A large, sprawling resort with lots of low-rise buildings and plenty of swimming pools so that your room is never far from a pool! My favourite pool was of course the adult’s only pool, where cocktails are delivered to your sunbed, and you can order food from one of the two bars. You can book a Cabana (at a cost) which has it’s own tv, swinging sofa and sunbeds. The sunbed cushions are luxuriously thick and comfortable. Other pools include a full size Olympic pool, ideal for getting those laps in if swimming is your thing. There is also an activity pool where they do spinning and Zumba (both IN the pool!) and there is even a swim-up bar so you can drink your cocktail without even having to get out of the pool!
As for the food, there were more restaurants than we could experience in our 5 nights here! We ate in the Mexican, where I tried Cactus for the first time (wouldn’t recommend, sorry!). We also ate in the Italian Restaurant (5/5), the Steak restaurant (5/5), the French restaurant (5/5) and finally the Caribbean restaurant (5/5). So as you can see I gave all of them 5 out of 5, because the food was absolutely amazing in every restaurant and the service was top notch. All of these restaurants bar the Caribbean was located in the main lobby building. Also in the building are a few shops (gift shop and a jewellery shop) and plenty of guest services desks where you can go to for help with excursions or if you have anything you need help with.
There is also a games arcade, several bars, a Peruvian restaurant, a Nepalise restaurant, and a Grill by one of the pools which we did have lunch in one day and had a fantastic burger. For breakfast we ate in the Grand Buffet, which offered plenty to choose from including stations where the staff would make omelettes / fried / scrambled eggs all fresh in front of you with toppings of your choice. You could also help yourself to many different types of fruit, bread, pastries, cereals, waffles, pancakes… there really was so much to choose from, plus it was nice to see a lot of Mexican offerings as well.
The rooms were very spacious with a large bathroom with double sinks, a large shower, and luxury amenities including hair straighteners and a hair dryer. In the main room we had two large double beds, a tv, plenty of workspace for your belongings, a fully stocked fridge, coffee machine, alcohol dispensers (optics), snacks, and then two desk areas and a large jacuzzi bath located down a few steps. From there you could go out onto a very large balcony with sunbeds and chairs. Our room was a standard garden view room, but as far as I know all rooms have the hot tub, if this is something you like the idea of. We had a view of the greenery which was still nice. We did spot some rooms which had swim up pools, and these looked stunning.
This is the kind of hotel you would go to if you weren’t fussed about leaving the resort – you wouldn’t need to with all of the activities, entertainment and restaurants on offer. So what else is there to do? Did I mention there was a water park here?! With water slides, a Flow Rider, and even a lazy river, children will be entertained all day long. There’s also an area in the middle of the water park called The Playroom, which is a kids club for all ages. They can play neon mini golf, bumper cars, a labyrinth, lazer maze and more. There is a 10 pin bowling alley too.
For adults there is a fitness centre which I tested out, and is filled with plenty of new gym equipment and is in a large space so can fit lots of people in. There is also a spa for those looking for a little pampering.
There was also a beach at this resort, with hammocks and sunbeds. They also had a seaweed net out to sea to try to reduce the amount of seaweed coming to shore. The sand does get raked here so you do get that tractor tyre effect on the beach. It wasn’t the powder soft white sand I was expecting, and the sea wasn’t that gorgeous turquoise blue I had expected either. But to be honest I’m not overly fussed about the beach anyway and was happy with the amount of pools there were to choose from!
At night there are bars galore, there’s even a nightclub. And in the theatre they hand out free popcorn and they put on a different show each night. We did pop in almost every night, and we saw a Michael Jackson tribute act one night, then another night we saw dancers in suits with coloured LED lights that were synced to the music, it sounds bad but it was amazing, I really enjoyed it! They had a magician another night, circus acts another night, there really is something for everyone.
How about travelling during Covid times? The rules at this resort were that you had to wear a face mask in all indoor venues, except when you were eating and drinking, and there were sanitising stations everywhere. Most people were following the rules, but I did notice on the last night there were quite a few people walking around in the main building with no masks on. All of the hotel employees had masks the whole time – I never saw anybody without one. Other than that there were no restrictions – all of the restaurants were busy and they didn’t seem to be at reduced capacity.
This is an all inclusive resort, so you can eat and drink whatever you like. There was even a little café offering milkshakes, ice creams, chocolates, macaroons, sandwiches etc. All of the drinks were included, unless you wanted speciality wines, but there was a good selection of wines included. This hotel was great at not giving out plastic straws, in fact if you wanted a straw you had to ask for one, and then it was a paper straw as opposed to plastic. And the last thing to mention, there were tons of golf buggies on hand to take you from one place to another if you didn't fancy the walk!
All in all a fantastic resort, with amazing food and great service. I would come back here again, I'd bring my family back for sure, plus it would also be a good place to come if you were wanting a break away with friends too. There is something for everybody here.